Subscribe

Powered By

Saturday, June 06, 2015

Least Flycatcher--the only Empid seen in my yard this spring--though a Willow Flycatcher was picked up by my OldBird21c microphone one night.

Usually by the end of May I've seen well over 200 species for the year in my county, and driven almost 10,000 miles looking for birds. This year I've only birded outside my yard a few times, so my mileage is way down. And I've found 138 species for the year in my yard. Not bad considering my overall yard list previous to starting this Backyard Big Year was only 156 species. But I've still got a long ways to go to reach my Backyard Big Year goals.

I spent a lot of time in my yard in May, trying to get the migrants as they go through. But it was a slow spring across most of New Jersey, and birds were few and far between. One indicator of how bad it was--I only saw one Yellow-rumped Warbler in the yard all spring! This is normally the most common migrant warbler, and a few even winter in the county.

Fortunately, I'm doing a bionic big year, so I can include birds recorded by my OldBird21c microphone at night while I sleep. It's bitter-sweet to get new birds this way, since they don't count on my personal eBird checklist, but I report them on my NFC station eBird checklist and they count towards the overall Backyard Big Year total. So far my NFC additions include such hard to get local birds as American Bittern, Black-crowned Night Heron, and Dickcissel (the only ones reported in the county so far this year). It takes a couple hours or more to review an overnight recording, and there are many calls that I can't ID. So I've still got a lot of work to do, and hopefully even more goodies tucked away in those recordings. So stay tuned.

Wednesday, April 01, 2015

February about killed me with the sub-zero temperatures, and March was also very cold. But it did start to warm up later in the month and I was able to add 20 new species to the Backyard Big Year list--including new all time yard birds Common Redpoll, Tundra Swan, Mute Swan, Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, and Northern Pintail.

On March 30, Frank Sencher Jr. sent out a text that he had a probable Thayer's Gull at Spruce Run. I took a quick break from my Backyard Big Year and was the first additional birder on the scene. Frank quickly got the bird in my scope and sure enough it looked really good for an adult Thayer's Gull--a bird reported but never confirmed with photos for the county. So I got out my iPhone 6 and trusty PhoneSkope adapter and started shooting video of the bird.

In these stills you can see the dark eye, bright raspberry pink legs, roundish head, smallish greenish bill, and most importantly the wing pattern--mostly white primaries underneath with small dark tips, and much reduced black on wingtips--mostly just tips and leading edges to the primaries.

Several other birders were able to get to the bird over the next few hours, and it was relocated again on the afternoon of March 31. There are over 2000 gulls in the area (I counted over 2400 streaming by from my yard this morning), so hopefully it will stay around for a few more days and return in the evenings for more to enjoy.

Underwing with narrowly dark-tipped white primaries. And doing the Can Can with those amazing raspberry pink feet.

Crucial shot of underwing, note white primaries with dark tips.

Dark eye, rounded head in this profile shot, and smallish greenish bill are all consistent with Thayer's Gull.

This shot makes the bill look heavier, but note the pale reddish gonydal spot, dark eye, and the mostly white primaries with dark tips. And you gotta love the bright raspberry colored legs and feet.

In this side view the primaries are clearly dark above with large white spots, and the underside of the primaries (on the folded hind wing) is mostly white with a small dark primary tip visible. Also note greenish small bill with a faint reddish-orange gonydal spot on lower mandible.

This is a crucial shot of the upper wing pattern--note the reduced black mostly on the tips and leading edge of the primaries. Also dark iris and bill without much patterning.

Sitting in front of a Herring Gull, unfortunately this view doesn't allow a good comparison of size differences, but the bird consistently looked a bit smaller than a Herring Gull. Here you can see the brown streaking on the head and dark eye. And brighter pink legs than the Herring Gull behind it.

In this shot you can see a better size comparison with the adjacent Lesser Black-backed Gull. Also note smallish bill with small reddish gonydal spot on lower mandible. And those bright pink legs are pretty obvious!

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Unfortunately books have become like movies. They appear, make a splash, then largely disappear from the public. Only a few live on in the active life of most readers or movie watchers. Books sit on shelves, movies show up in Netflix or on cable. But many deserve a second look after the buzz has died down.

Derek Lovitch's How to Be a Better Birder (Princeton 2012) is worth a second look. I had meant to review it when it came out, but somehow life got away from me and the review didn't happen. But the book has been on my mind a lot, and so now is as good a time as ever to revisit it!

Lovitch grew up in New Jersey, and How to Be a Better Birder is a good introduction to what might be termed the Cape May school of birding. His first six chapters introduce important concepts that can help birders find and identify more birds, while his final three chapters show how all of these concepts work together in real life birding situations.

Birding at Night--tracking migration on RADAR and with nocturnal flight calls.

Birding with a Purpose--citizen science programs including the Christmas Bird Count and eBird that allow birders to contribute to our understanding of bird distribution and abundance.

These chapters offer good introductions to all of these themes, with personal examples that help to see how these principles can guide and improve our regular birding--by improve it is understood throughout this book that this means finding and identifying more birds. Including rarities. And that's how Lovitch rounds out this moderate (192 pages) tome, with chapters on:

Vagrants--how the above principles influence the movement and finding of rare birds.

Birding in New Jersey--a review of one of Lovitch's recent birding trips to Cape May and elsewhere in the Garden State, showing how using these principles influenced and improved the birding on that trip.

Patch Listing--a plea for birders to pick a local spot using these principles and to bird it regularly.

All of these chapters are worthy of review. Many of these topics are covered in more detail elsewhere, and Lovitch is quick to provide references and suggestions for those wanting more information. If you haven't read How to Be a Better Birder yet, you owe it to yourself to take a look. It is informational, but also inspiring. We can all be better birders, and most birders will probably find something here to spark their imagination or help them take their birding to the next level.

While most of Lovitch's examples are based on his own birding in the Eastern United States, there are references to how these principles play out in other parts of North America, improving the book's usefulness beyond the shadow of Cape May.

And you don't have to be a wide-ranging birder to take advantage of these better birding principles. In fact, I've been thinking about these themes a lot recently as I undertake my Backyard Big Year. For more thoughts on how these principles play out for a dedicated yard lister, check out my post on How to Be a Better (Backyard) Birder.

Disclosure: This review is based on a review copy provided by the publisher.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

I shot this slo-mo video of a Mourning Dove in the snow on my patio. I like how it gives the bird a totally different feel than we are used to seeing.

The funny thing is, this may be more how Mourning Doves experience themselves. Pigeons and presumably doves have a much faster flicker-fusion rate than we do--the number of discreet moments that they can perceive before they start to blur together. This probably means that they experience more moments/period of time than we do--or in other words, they probably experience the flow of time differently than we do. While they may seem all sped up to us normally, this video may show more of how the world is for them.

Watching a Mourning Dove at closer to their own speed, doesn't it look more like a grazing cow. Or perhaps a distantly related herbivorous dinosaur?

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Join me in 2015 for a hard-core birding adventure right in my own backyard!

For 2015 I'm bringing hard core birding home in an all-out, high tech blitz to see how many birds I can detecting in my yard during the year. I'll be watching the sky for flyovers, recording at night with a microphone to catch the birds migrating over the yard, and will have trail cams set up to detect birds trying to sneak a drink out of my water features.

I'm really excited about this Backyard Big Year and have created a Backyard Big Year blog just to keep up with all the birds and birding that will be involved. I'll post highlights here, but otherwise for 2015 my Birdchaser blog here will focus on my other birding adventures as well as equipment and book reviews.

So look forward to seeing you over at the Backyard Big Year blog or on the Backyard Big Year Facebook page. We're going to learn a lot about how to see more birds in your yard, so it won't just be about me and my backyard adventure. I'll be exploring the cutting edge of bird detection, identification, and birding technologies.

Monday, December 29, 2014

So the year isn't quite over, there are still a few days left to find something to add to this list. But barring a last minute birding surprise, here are my best birds of 2014.

10) Calliope Hummingbird--a first state record found at my friend's feeders, this bird was a first Hunterdon County record and lingered for a week giving many folks a chance to see it. One of 7 new birds I added to my county list this year.

1st Hunterdon County Calliope Hummingbird, Holland Twp.

9) Sanderling--After missing this bird in the county for the past two years, I was happy to finally see one at Spruce Run this fall. One of the 7 birds I added to my Hunterdon County list this past year.

Sanderling, Spruce Run, Hunterdon, NJ

8) White-tailed Wheatear--This bird is a first record for The Netherlands if accepted as a wild bird. I twitched it on the way to the airport on my way home, and got some distant digiscoped shots (below) of it sitting on an apartment building. A great rarity and urban bird, and one of the 11 life birds I saw this past year.

7) Arctic Loon--A flyover on a jetty in the North Sea of The Netherlands was one of only 11 life birds I saw this past year.

6) Caspian Gull--I hiked over 8 miles down a beach in the rain and got totally soaked to see this bird, but it was one of the 11 lifers I saw this year.

5) Great Skua--I got a very distant look at this bird during a storm from a jetty in The Netherlands. One of the 11 life birds I saw this year.

4) Whiskered Tern--I drove down to Cape May, my first trip down there in 19 years, to see this bird that spent a week flying around the hawk watch platform. One of the 11 lifers I saw this year.

3) White-tailed Eagle--I've dreamed of seeing this bird for a long time, and finally got to see several of them--if distantly--on my trip to The Netherlands in October. One of the 11 lifers I saw this year.

A crummy digiscoped shot, but that large-headed, short-tailed blog on the post is an adult White-tailed Eagle :-)

2) European Golden Plover--found by my local birding friends while I was in New York, I drove through the night to see it and was the first to get video (below) or photos confirming the identification by showing the white underwing. This is a first state record for New Jersey.

1) Neotropic Cormorant--I found this bird, a New Jersey first state record, at one of my local patches on the way home from the grocery store back in April. It lingered until early July, giving hundreds of birders a chance to add this to their state list--and since it is a regional first, folks even came from out of state to enjoy it.

First NJ record of Neotropic Cormorant, Clinton, Hunterdon, NJ

I ended the year within a stone's throw of an ABA milestone, and may take some time out next year to chase a couple more birds for my North America list. I ended the year with 240 species on my 2014 Hunterdon County list, ending in the top 3 again for the third year I lived here. I didn't do as good a job of taking my kids birding as I had anticipated back in January, and my Holland trip was the only foreign trip of the year. So not a big listing year outside of the county, but finding a 3rd third NJ record in 15 months was nothing to complain about!

Hope everyone had a fun time birding in 2014. Feel free to share your own bests in the comments.